Prosecution hits choppy water in case against The Pirate Bay
Swedish prosecutors have dismissed about half the charges brought against defendants accused of copyright violations through their operation of a P2P (peer-to-peer) web site that connects users to content - mainly music and movies - on other users' PCs.
Last year, the owners of The Pirate Bay - a Sweden-based Web site that's reportedly one of the world's largest BitTorrent trackers - were charged with "promoting other people's infringement of copyright laws."
The owners - Hans Fredrik Neij, Per Svartholm Warg, Peter Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundstroem - countered that they did not profit from the site because they reinvested revenue to offset operational costs.
Copyright holders applauded the initial prosecution of The Pirate Bay, not only because huge volumes of materials were reportedly traded through it, but also because of the site's blasé attitude toward the alleged violations. The proprietors were viewed as thumbing their noses at the law.
Now, it appears that the defendants may indeed have had some justification for their confidence. Close to a year after the complaint against them was filed, and two days into their trial, prosecutors have dropped the charge of illegally distributing materials. Now, the defendants are faced only with making copyrighted material available.
